Jailed ex-Guatemalan president receives medical attention for 'cardiac problem'
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Jailed former Guatemalan president Otto Perez was receiving medical attention, the spokesman for the Central American nation’s prison system said on Tuesday, after he suffered what his lawyer described was a “cardiac problem.”
FILE PHOTO: Guatemala's former President Otto Perez speaks during an interview with Reuters at the Matamoros Army Base, in Guatemala City, Guatemala October 24, 2015. REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez/File Photo
“The family called me to tell me that General Perez Molina had a cardiac problem. I do not know the severity,” the ex-president’s defense lawyer Cesar Calderon told Reuters.
“I do not know what happened to him or how he is ... Since it is an emergency, his transfer to a hospital was requested,” said Calderon, of the politician who previously served in the army.
The prison system spokesman said Perez was receiving “preventive” medical attention after he requested it.
A fellow inmate held in the same part of the jail said Perez had suffered a heart attack. The inmate asked not to be named.
Perez was forced to resign and imprisoned in a multi-million dollar graft case stemming from an investigation by the U.N.-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).
Reporting by Sofia Menchu; editing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel & Simon Cameron-Moore
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.